Shaker Bench Finish Update

[Martin Shupe]

Here is a more recent pic of the Shaker Bench I posted back in Feb 2003. I initially finished it with Tried and True Varnish Oil, but after a year or so, the finish looked kind of dried out. Perhaps it needed another coat of T@T Varnish, but I had such a hard time getting it to dry correctly, that I put a coat of Waterlox on it instead. Again, just a little on the shiny side for my taste, but my wife really likes it.

Here goes another attempt at resizing a pic...

[Martin Shupe]

I don't like that one much either...I want to see wood grain, not pixels.

I'll try again tomorrow, after I pick up some advice from you all.

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

The grass photographed quite well. :-)

[Jim Becker]

Martin, is this the bench you showed me last year after our group dinner?

[Carole Valentine]

Martin,
I use Photoshop. If you have it, just click on File>Save for Web then in the Image Ready window, then click on the Image Size tab, put in a new width of 400 or 500 pixels (the height should adjust itself proportionately if you have that checked) then set it for JPEG. Click on the little right pointing arrow to the right of the Preset field and choose optimize to file size. Put in 40 and hit OK. Click Save. Voila! There are other optimization programs out there, but for me this is easiest since I can give it a maximum file size and it does a great job.

[Jim Becker]

Per Carole's suggestion, here is the original re-sized in PS Elements to 500 pixels. It's still not a great picture as the detail was already lost from the original, but it's a little less pixilated at this size.

[Martin Shupe]

Martin, is this the bench you showed me last year after our group dinner?

Yes Jim, same bench, but it looks a lot better now!

It still has one problem that I noticed a little too late to fix. After I put the Waterlox on it, I found a water ring that must have been in the T&T. Any ideas on how to remove Waterlox? I am thinking lots of sanding or maybe some scraping. :( Don't have time this month, but it's on my list of things to fix.

Thanks for the advice Carole, and Jim for fixing my pix. I'll either download some software or buy Photoshop for future pics.